The Natural Birth Podcast

Today on The Natural Birth Podcast we have Rocio.Rocio is a mama of one originally from Cuba, a citizen of the US now living in the Dominican Republic.She's a writer, seeker, and huge birth nerd. Flying out to have an autonomous birth in the Dominican Republic at 38 weeks was a big part of her life long search for true freedom. She is a political refugee from Cuba and the daughter of an ObGyn Mother. The themes of fleeing a dictatorial government, immigration, and what freedom really means, led her on a deep spiritual search early in her life which contributed to her choice to birth autonomously with only her partner in the room. She's currently writing a memoir on these topics, and deeply enjoying her first year and a half of motherhood in the Dominican Republic. In today's episode she shares her freebirth story with us.Curious about Rocio? Find her on IG as @living.on.spirit and @mothera.coLiving on Spirit on Substack Want to work with Anna or join The Sacred Birth Worker Mentorship?Find Anna’s Website, about her Mentorship & How to Work with Her, as well as all Links & Resources she mentions in the episode here:www.sacredbirthinternational.com/links-podcast

Today on The Natural Birth Podcast we have Liz. Liz is a mama of 3 from the USShe is a sonographer who started out with the standard american medicalized hospital birth story with pitocin, broken waters, epidural, and finally a vacuum birth that really affected her pelvic floor.For her second, she knew she wanted something different. She educated herself about natural birth and found the natural birth podcast. At this point, she still didn’t feel confident enough to not birth in the hospital, but was determined to have a natural birth. And even though she was only at the hospital 2 hours before her baby was born, she still had her waters broken with coached pushing guided by the doctor without any reason, which was enough to change the description of her birth from blissful (which she felt at home) to not how she wanted her birth to go. By her third baby, she was ready to fully commit to a birth with privately practicing midwives in a birth center. And THIS was how birth was meant to be according to Liz.Want to work with Anna or join The Sacred Birth Worker Mentorship?Find Anna’s Website, about her Mentorship & How to Work with Her, as well as all Links & Resources she mentions in the episode here:www.sacredbirthinternational.com/links-podcast

Today on The Natural Birth Podcast we have Kaela.Kaela is a mama of one from Australia.In today’s episode she shares about her empowering and natural home birth that turned into a hospital transfer as she had a 3rd degree tear. Hospital transfers and tears are the 2 biggest fears amongst pregnant mamas and especially you who listen to this podcast. So what better way of facing those fears than by listening to a mama who had, according to herself, the most empowering birth even though she had both one of the bigger tears that only around 5% of women get and a hospital transfer from her home birth.People usually assume I think a natural birth through and through is the be all and end all because I am a huge advocate about educating about natural physiological birth and the benefits of it. But if you’ve listened to me for any length of time you know this is not true, and if you’re a student or mentee of mine you know it even deeper.I’m all for education in pregnancy and optimizing body, mind and soul for your desired birth outcome which I believe mostly have to do with inner work, facing fears and deeply getting to know your body, baby and having a relationship with your intuition.Once the first contraction hits you are now to surrender to the great mystery of birth. And a positive birth experience is not necessarily a natural one. Not holding on to a certain outcome for your happiness is so important and trusting that there is wisdom in the way you birth even if it’s not the way you wanted it. We can learn so much about ourselves, our babies, our deep hidden patterns and allow birth to awaken us, transform us and enlighten us instead of feeling like failures if it didn’t end up being exactly as we wished.I love that Kaela only have positive proud feelings around her home birth where some might have felt the opposite having had a 3rd degree tear and transfer.I hope her story and how she navigated her tear and transfer is inspiring to you and also might release some fear around these two occurring in your birth.Want to work with Anna or join The Sacred Birth Worker Mentorship?Find Anna’s Website, about her Mentorship & How to Work with Her, as well as all Links & Resources she mentions in the episode here:www.sacredbirthinternational.com/links-podcast

Today on The Natural Birth Podcast we have Malou Malou is a mama of two from the Netherlands and the co-founder of Natural Heroes, which she runs together with her partner Nevil, the father of her two children. She is the head of R&D and a formulator, so her daily life is all about blending science, plant-based ingredients, and a very intuitive approach to wellbeing. That same blend of intuition and research shaped how she approached becoming a mother.She’s had two vaginal births, but they couldn’t have been more different. Her first birth was meant to be a natural, physiological experience at home, but it eventually became a medicated hospital birth. Looking back, that birth taught her a lot about her own good girl tendencies, about support, self-trust, and how things can unravel when the environment doesn’t fully align with what you need. It was challenging and transformative in ways she only understood later.Her second birth, only 15 months later, was the complete opposite.. the most freeing, powerful, intuitive experience of her life. It unfolded in three hours and felt like a deep reclamation of everything that didn’t go the way she hoped the first time. It was fast, intense, and profoundly healing. She moved through it with clarity and strength and it reshaped her entire relationship with birth and motherhood.That contrast, the rupture of the first birth and the liberation of the second, is what we talk about on the podcast today. Both births were rites of passages in their own way, and together they tell the story of how she’s grown, healed, and stepped into motherhood.Curious about Malou? Find her on @hybrid_nomads & Natural Heroes @naturalheroes Want to work with Anna or join The Sacred Birth Worker Mentorship?Find Anna’s Website, about her Mentorship & How to Work with Her, as well as all Links & Resources she mentions in the episode here:www.sacredbirthinternational.com/links-podcast

Today on The Natural Birth Podcast we have Cindy Cindy is a naturopathic doctor, birth guardian, podcast host of Rewire for Birth and single mom of 2 incredible little girls.I had the pleasure of being on Cindy’s podcast recently and I’m so happy to have her on mine.She has seen that when we work with and honour the innate wisdom of our bodies, a spectrum of possibility is unlocked for the whole family unit. Through her one-to-one and group sessions, she helps women rewire their BODYMIND so they can reclaim their birth. Today she shares her lovely first water home birth that only lasted 4 hrs and then her very fast second where the midwives only arrived 7 minutes after the birth and she had an accidental free birth.Cindy is full of birthing wisdom and I’m so glad she wanted to come and share it with us.Curious about Cindy? Find her on @drcindytahhan and @rewireforbirthWant to work with Anna or join The Sacred Birth Worker Mentorship?Find Anna’s Website, about her Mentorship & How to Work with Her, as well as all Links & Resources she mentions in the episode here:www.sacredbirthinternational.com/links-podcast